speaker, this so-called fiscal cliff. it's not a fiscal cliff. the truth is we have a tax decision coming up and we have a spending decision coming up. truthfully, we need more spending decisions coming up. sequester is a new word that we brought up. the sequester, as you recall, mr. speaker, was the hammer that we put in place way back, one of the first big votes you and i took way back in august of 2011. that was part of an agreement that the president wanted to raise the debt ceiling. there were bills that needed to be paid. the speaker of the house, john boehner, said we're not going to expand america's credit card until we get serious about curbing spending. he said, no, mr. president, i will not raise the limit on america's credit card unless you agree to dollar-for-dollar reductions on the spending side of the ledger so that we're not just making the problem worse, we're creating a pathway to solve the problem altogether. i admire the speaker for that. and the speaker and the president agreed on this proposal. it was called the budget cont